The sight of the battle from an outsider’s point of view could be summed up in one single word… Ridiculous.
What one could see from far away was a destroyed ship floating in the air with another ship pinned into it horizontally. On it, a group of humans were fighting an army of burning corpses.
There was simply no normal way of describing such a scene and not sounding insane. Yet, it was happening in real-time.
Minutes had passed like hours on the group and their struggle only grew harder with each passing second. They killed and killed without stopping for a moment and yet that didn’t seem to do much. The numbers weren’t going down and the deck was only getting filled with more corpses and more enemies. They were surrounded from all angles, fighting a battle that seemed like a hopeless one.
However, nobody backed down. They fought with every single ounce of strength they had. One after the other, they attacked every enemy in their way. They had no time to rest or think.
They faced the imminent threat with courage unlike anything else. But, if courage was enough, they would’ve not ended up in such a situation. They were stuck, unable to do anything that could truly help them.
That naturally meant one thing… Mistakes were bound to happen.
“AGH!!” Danny groaned loudly as he felt a sharp burning pain assault his arm. Looking down, he saw a monster grabbing him tightly. The blue fire was assaulting his skin relentlessly.
‘It’s… It’s cold!’ Danny mused in shock. The fire, against his expectations, wasn’t hot. Instead, it was so brutally cold that it left a burning mark on his arm.
“Danny!” Herculia saw that as he quickly pushed all the monsters around him and rushed to help his friend. With a single punch, he sent the monster flying like a ragdoll. “Are you ok?”
“Tsk…” Danny shook his hand to get rid of the pain and nodded. “I’m fine. Hah… Hah… Be careful of the fire, it’s very cold..”
“A cold fire?”
“I don’t know why. But it’s extremely cold.”
“… What the hell are these creatures?” Wiping the sweat off his face, Herculia stared around him with a dark expression. “We aren’t making any progress. They’re like little insects. No matter how many you kill, they still keep coming out of nowhere.”
Danny instinctively looked at the standing ship with squinted eyes as he pushed a few monsters away from him. ‘How are they still coming out of that thing? That ship shouldn’t be able to fit this many monsters.’
“Something isn’t adding up…” He clenched his teeth as he looked down again. ‘We aren’t fighting something normal.’
Meanwhile, Isla was deep into the enemy lines, cutting long paths through them. Her gravitational abilities were devastating to insane degrees not only because they were extremely powerful against clusters of enemies, but also because they effectively neutralized all the enemies upon contact.
However, Isla was already reaching the end of her endurance. Her stamina and mana were depleted considerably and she was starting to feel that deep exhaustion. However, every single time she felt the pain of exhaustion, she looked up and saw Arthur still destroying the enemy lines like an assault machine.
He didn’t seem like he was getting exhausted. That instinctively pushed her even further. If Arthur was trying that hard, why shouldn’t she try hard too?
She couldn’t let her team down now. However, even with all of that, there was always a limit she knew that she was bound to reach if things continued this way.
Minute after minute, her power waned and she was getting overwhelmed just like her friends. But, Isla was too prideful to ask for help. She didn’t want to appear weak in front of her team. After all, if Isla shows weakness, their morale would plummet instantly. She was their pillar that must never fall.
‘Think, think… What should I do?’ She ran through countless ideas during that time and yet none seemed to be applicable.
There was simply no viable thing to do at that moment that would truly put an end to these monsters.
What she didn’t know was that Arthur was having the same dilemma. He didn’t know what to do either.
‘Hah… Hah… They burnt me a few times… My health is good, but I can’t say the same for my stamina.’ He clenched his teeth. ‘There has to be a different way of getting rid of all of these bastards. In one fell swipe.’
If Arthur’s calculations were correct, he only had enough mana left in his bar for one more attack before he had to drink a potion or rest. Both would take valuable time that he cannot afford to waste. So, he had to somehow end this battle quickly if he didn’t want the inevitable loss.
‘Something that can end this fight quickly… Something…’ At that moment, Arthur’s eyes widened as a sharp idea pried into his head. An idea so ridiculous, that his entire body shuddered. However, that idea also drew a wide-crazed smile on his face.
‘Arthur… You goddamn lunatic genius! This could work!!’ He thought to himself as he sliced through several enemies. Then, he quickly turned around and looked at the others. Changing his trajectory, he rushed toward them, cutting through the waves of enemies as he bore the burning pain of the blue flames assaulting his skin.
Eventually, he reached them.
“Arthur?” Isla frowned.
“I have an idea. I need your help and everyone’s help.” He said quickly.
“What idea?”
“I can’t explain yet, follow me.” He said, as he rushed past her toward the empty side of the deck that wasn’t invaded yet by the monsters. It wasn’t a big area by any means, but he reckoned that it was enough.
“Herculia, Danny, come back here! Change of plans!” He yelled loudly.
“Huh?”
“A new plan?”
The two didn’t understand what was happening, but they didn’t try to argue as there was no time to argue. Even Danny had to ignore the hatred he had toward Arthur as he knew it wouldn’t bring him any benefit.
Quickly, the players regrouped near Emmy. The monsters chased them quickly when they noticed that.
“I cannot explain, but just trust me,” Arthur said as he stood in front of them.
“What are you going to do?”
“Just watch.” Arthur grinned and stared at the waves of monsters approaching them. There wasn’t a place where he could look that wasn’t invaded by these burning cadavers. However, Arthur took a deep breath and put his hand on his sword handle.
‘I have already used this ability before… But, not to this level.’ He mused as he closed his eyes and took a weird fighting stance. He channeled every single ounce of mana he had in his body into his sword all at the same time.
That was when they saw it. His sanguine blade suddenly exploded with a black, almost demonic aura. Its sheer strength made the air current change. The tentacles of black aura spread everywhere around Arthur as he quickly.
“What is that?” Isla muttered with a horrified look on her face.
“…” Nobody moved as they watched Arthur’s blade leave its sheath.
The more of it appeared, the darker the aura became. Then, when it was fully out, it surprisingly vanished out of nowhere.
Arthur slowly lifted the sword up as he looked at the waves of monsters. His eyes were deadly cold.
“… Mortal Slash.”
Then, all hell broke loose.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3
